Stiva

I popped huge when he was clearly disgusted at Chuck Taylor’s shitty bumping.

Man, that main event was so great. Moxley is astonishingly good at laying out matches and everything about this act screams “star”. The entrance, the gear, the swagger, even the music is perfect. Darby Allin matches are always going to be must-sees because when they tease something crazy, like that superplex onto the floor, there’s every chance that he’ll actually take the bump. Every potential, ludicrous big spot tease takes on far more meaning.

I’ve only just started this show but we’re getting DUSTIN on commentary. EDIT: He’s channelling Dusty something fierce, including asking Excalibur if he’s pronouncing things right.

Darby Allin is going to coffin drop from the top of the ship onto a crowd. It'll be like New Jack's balcony dives but crossed with the guy hitting the propeller in Titanic.

I really want to see Biff Busick roll through Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy before eventually coming up against Luchasaurus. Book it, Cody

That’s the guy, thanks. For some reason, I wanted to call him “TJ Johnson” but I knew that wasn’t right.

I would kind of like it if AEW had a set of 5-6 job guys, ala Horowitz where, everyone knows what’s going down but are strong enough workers to make their opponent look good, feed them correctly and get them over. Peter Avalon is actually solid at it, so is the dude with the apple who’s name escapes me but Nakazawa is really poor, even if it was neat that there was a character justification for him working Moxley. They were in Nashville, there has to be some ex- NWA Wildside guys around someplace. David Young could be All Elite.

Yeah, this really felt like they finally got the balance right and who knew that you could feature twice as many people if guys weren't having 20 minute matches every week? The Wardlow debut was a great bit of heat and with him and Luchasaurus' return, AEW finally has some more big boys to beef up the roster a bit. The Bucks/PnP brawl was good stuff and I'd assume the belts will go to PnP before the Bucks get their shot and even the Janela/Spears brawl, while bland, at least did something to further their feud. It feels like they took a way more active approach to getting everything on the show, advancing just about everything further and cutting a great pace. Nyla/Kong will get over huge if they can continue to find ways to keep them both on Dynamite every week and the eventual title match with Riho from whoever wins that should be fun.

Another Paul Burchill run

Great to see Kong finally hit the ring. Riho/Kong is genuinely intriguing going forward and it's time to see if Kong is a draw post-GLOW.

This is such an incredible idea. I've been chuckling at it on and off all day, excellent work. Nice to hear Taz again; he has a genuinely solid rapport with Excalibur that AEW should explore going forward.

Card is 1. AEW World Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Cody. If Cody loses, he’ll never challenge for the AEW Championship again 2. AEW Women’s Championship Match: Riho (c) vs. Emi Sakura 3. AEW Tag Team Championship Match: SCU (c) vs. Lucha Bros. vs. Private Party 4. The Young Bucks vs. Santana and Ortiz 5. PAC vs. Hangman Adam Page 6. Lights Out Unsanctioned Match: Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley 7. Joey Janela vs. Shawn Spears 8. Buy In Match: Dr. Britt Baker DMD vs. Bea Priestley Should be a pretty good show, the big matches should all deliver. I’m surprised that they didn’t find a way to get Darby Allin on the show, figured he might work with Guevara but not to be. This Countdown vid is another great hype job. They really do need a way to get this character work over on TV, even if it means sacrificing a match since it’s all very genuine and convincing. Talking head interviews are a really cool way to put guys over too.

Having stables and teams, babyfaces and heels interact with each other is vital, just so you can run awesome angles like the one we got at the end. A great little touch was Cody's "Oh shit" expression when he saw Moxley coming through the crowd. I think the matches weren't great on this show but they heated up that PPV like a motherfucker last night.

It’s why Seth was perfect in The Shield because he could flip around like an asshole at the end of those big 6-mans and it was always a hot finishing stretch.

Vince pulling the feed in the middle of Blood Money, silent assassin country and bouncing off on a private jet is fucking radical. Leaving his entire workforce behind is questionable behaviour but fuck, man, that's a power play you can respect.

Vince vs Salman at Mania is way, way better than anything they have lined up, to be fair.

HHH using this to further his goal of one day running everything by integrating NXT is one step closer. And even better, he put them all over the main roster, guys. The man is something else, you have to give him credit.

In 40 years, troops will be pulling down a gigantic statue of Stephanie McMahon standing in the centre of Riyadh

Also, Megalovania should be Kenny Omega's entrance music from now on. It's better than every other theme in every wrestling company imaginable. Omegalovania.

Guys working a good match and then disappearing for a couple of weeks happened a lot on early Nitro too. Granted, they also had Saturday Night to focus guys but I’m sure when Darby is next on Dynamite, he’ll have something new and crazy that keeps him over. I’d rather that than having them burn through all his potential match-ups within 6 months. Also, co-signed on the women’s match. I thought it did a great job of getting them both over and everything looked roughly ten times more accomplished than that sloppy 4-way on Dark. I also really liked the Tony/Cody Limo segment; it came across like a family friend trying to comfort and encourage his younger comrade ahead of the biggest match of his life. Their willingness to lean into history without battering you on the head with it is really refreshing.

WWE.com says ”Natalya and Lacey Evans SMASH BARRIERS in Saudi Arabia’s first ever women’s match” Even the website is impossible to read.

Did they bring in Cain to build to Rey/Brock at the Rumble?!

Mercedes Martinez worked the Dark taping and man, they really need her in the Women’s Division.

Sonny Kiss is still very raw but he’s clearly got everything you need to be a great face so what better way to learn than team with Dustin Rhodes, of all people? That’s the best education you could ever need.

Russo is deeply unlikable on a personal level which is some degree different to getting boos out of a live crowd.